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Quite Often I Can Be In A Bookshop, Standing Beneath A Great Big Picture Of Myself And Paying For A Book With A Credit Card Clearly Marked John Grisham, Yet No One Recognises Me. I Often Say I'm A Famous Author In A Country Where No One Reads.

-John Grisham

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Quite Often I Can

John Grisham

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Quite Often I Can Be In A Bookshop, Standing Beneath A Great Big Picture Of Myself And Paying For A Book With A Credit Card Clearly Marked John Grisham, Yet No One Recognises Me. I Often Say I'm A Famous Author In A Country Where No One Reads.

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The Worst Letters Come From Retired High School English Teachers. They Will Literally Take A Book And Pick It To Pieces And Send Me 14 Pages Of Notes.

He's My Client, And He's Counting On Me. I'll Take Him, Warts And All.

I Was Tired Of Secrets, Tired Of Seeing Things I Was Not Supposed To See. And So I Just Cried.

I'm Being Followed So Much I'm Causing Traffic Jams.

Live Your Life The Way You Want. You'll Figure It Out.

Writing's Still The Most Difficult Job I've Ever Had - But It's Worth It.

It's A Game. We Tax Lawyers Teach The Rich How To Play It So They Can Stay Rich-and The Irs Keeps Changing The Rules So We Can Keep Getting Rich Teaching Them.

You Burn A Man's Pickup, And He's Ready For War.

I Learned That Lesson A Long Time Ago. When You Write Popular Fiction, You're Going To Get Bashed By Critics.

Privileged People Don't March And Protest; Their World Is Safe And Clean And Governed By Laws Designed To Keep Them Happy.

We Learned After The First Semester In Law School That It's Best Never To Discuss Exams. If Notes Are Compared Afterwards, You Become Painfully Aware Of Things You Missed.

I Grew Up In A Very Small, Close-knit, Southern Baptist Family, Where Everything Was Off-limits. So I Couldn't Wait To Get To College And Have Some Fun. And I Did For The First Two Years. And I Regret A Lot Of It, Because My Grades Were In Terrible Shape.

In Life, Finding A Voice Is Speaking And Living The Truth. Each Of You Is An Original. Each Of You Has A Distinctive Voice. When You Find It, Your Story Will Be Told. You Will Be Heard.

Judge Not That Ye Be Not Judged

There's Always Such A Rush To Judgment. It Makes A Fair Trial Hard To Get.

When Witnesses Concoct Lies, They Often Miss The Obvious.

Mr. Buckley, Let Me Explain It This Way. And I'll Do So Very Carefully & Slowly So That Even You Will Understand It. If I Was The Sheriff, I Would Not Have Arrested Him. If I Was On The Grand Jury, I Would Not Have Indicted Him. If I Was The Judge, I Would Not Try Him. If I Was The D.a., I Would Not Prosecute Him. If I Was On The Trial Jury, I Would Vote To Give Him A Key To The City, A Plaque To Hang On His Wall, & I Would Send Him Home To His Family. And, Mr. Buckley, If My Daughter Is Ever Raped, I Hope I Have The Guts To Do What He Did.

The Company Later Went Broke, And Of Course All Blame Was Directed At The Lawyers. Not Once Did I Hear Any Talk That Maybe A Trace Of Mismanagement Could In Any Way Have Contributed To The Bankruptcy.

Stephen King Told Me A Long Time Ago, When He Gave Me Some Advice About The Movies. He Said To Take The Money Up Front And Expect It To Be Something Different Than The Book And If You Don't Like That Don't Deal With Hollywood. But If You Take The Money, Shut Up And Don't Criticize The Film Because You Sold It. The Movie Doesn't Change A Word Of The Book.

I Don't Want To Force My Politics On My Readers.

I Remember Stephen King Did A Fundraiser One Time With J.k. Rowling And He Was Very Impressed With Her. But We Talk A Lot About Publishing, Bookselling, And Book Writing. He's Been Around For Ten Years Longer Than Me And Was A Bestseller Right Off The Bat. And He's Seen And Done Everything. It's Rare To Be With Somebody Who Has Been Through All Of That.

I Don't Feel Stupid, Just Inadequate. After Three Years Of Studying The Law, I'm Very Much Aware Of How Little I Know.

Four Rehabs Meant A Fifth Was Somewhere Down The Road.

I Struggle With Racism Every Day

The Mother Of A Trophy Wife Is Not Automatically A Trophy Mother-in-law.

I Cannot Write As Well As Some People; My Talent Is In Coming Up With Good Stories About Lawyers.that Is What I Am Good At.

More Than 100 People Have Been Sent To Death Row Who Were Later Exonerated Because They Weren't Guilty Or Fairly Tried. Most Criminal Defendants Do Not Get Adequate Representation Because There Are Not Enough Public Defenders To Represent Them. There Is A Lot That Is Wrong.

We Cuss Them Because We're Not Good Enough For Them. We Hate Them Because They Wouldn't Look At Us, Couldn't Be Bothered To Give Us An Interview. I Guess There's A Trent & Brent In Every City, In Every Field. I Didn't Make It And I Don't Belong, So I'll Just Go Through Life Hating Them.

I Always Do Book Signings With The Same Blue Pen. That Way, If I Add A Personalised Message To A Book I've Already Signed, It'll Be In The Same Colour As My Signature.

Reading Is By Far The Most Successful Pursuit Of Happiness.

Pursuit Of Happiness

All Students Enter Law School With A Certain Amount Of Idealism And Desire To Serve The Public, But After Three Years Of Brutal Competition We Care For Nothing But The Right Job With The Right Firm Where We Can Make Partner In Seven Years And Earn Big Bucks.

Life Is Short..live To The Fullest.

Live To The Fullest

I've Sold Too Many Books To Get Good Reviews Anymore. There's A Lot Of Jealousy, Because [reviewers] Think They Can Write A Good Novel Or A Best-seller And Get Frustrated When They Can't. I've Learned To Despise Them.

I'm Alone And Outgunned, Scared And Inexperienced, But I'm Right.

An Outline Is Crucial. It Saves So Much Time. When You Write Suspense, You Have To Know Where You're Going Because You Have To Drop Little Hints Along The Way. With The Outline, I Always Know Where The Story Is Going. So Before I Ever Write, I Prepare An Outline Of 40 Or 50 Pages.

Writing Was Not A Childhood Dream Of Mine. I Do Not Recall Longing To Write As A Student. I Wasn't Sure How To Start.

It's As If We Spend Our Entire Lives Avoiding Jell-o But It Is Always There At The End, Waiting.

I Have Learned Not To Read Reviews. Period. And I Hate Reviewers. All Of Them, Or At Least All But Two Or Three. Life Is Much Simpler Ignoring Reviews And The Nasty People Who Write Them. Critics Should Find Meaningful Work.

Shame Was An Emotion He Had Abandoned Years Earlier. Addicts Know No Shame. You Disgrace Yourself So Many Times You Become Immune To It.

Michael Harvey Should Be Read By All.

Still, Something About Writing Made Me Spend Large Hours Of My Free Time At My Desk.

Keeping A Guy In Prison Costs 50,000 Bucks A Year. Executing One Costs A Couple Million.

The Good Thing About Writing Fiction Is That You Can Get Back At People.

Critics Should Find Meaningful Work.

I Give Off Rather Mixed Messages About The Law. On The One Hand, I Can Honestly Say I Don't Miss Working In A Law Office. On The Other Hand I Do Enjoy Watching The Law And While The Profession May Have Its Problems, I Have Sold Zillions Of Books Out Of Magnifying Them.

One Thing That Drives Me Nuts... Well, Let Me Ask You, When Writers Write Do They Not Use Quotation Marks Anymore?

I'm A Christian, And Those Beliefs Occasionally Come Out In The Books.

In Little Pockets Of Conversation, Old Men Were Telling Stories Of Ancient Floods. Women Were Talking Of About How Much Rain There'd Been In Other Towns -- Paragould, Lepanto, And Manila.

Jesus Preached More And Taught More About Helping The Poor And The Sick And The Hungry Than He Did About Heaven And Hell. Shouldn't That Tell Us Something?

I Still Enjoy The Process Of Writing. If I Ever Feel Like I Am Going Through The Motions Because I Can Sell Anything At This Level, I Hope That Somebody, Somewhere Who I Trust Will Tell Me To Take A Break And Stop Because It's Sounding Old. But So Far, I Don't Feel Like I'm Boring Anyone.

Quite Often I Can Be In A Bookshop, Standing Beneath A Great Big Picture Of Myself And Paying For A Book With A Credit Card Clearly Marked John Grisham, Yet No One Recognises Me. I Often Say I'm A Famous Author In A Country Where No One Reads.

Every Morning I Wake At 6am Or 6.30am, Champing At The Bit.

A Riveting, Exciting And Thoroughly Compelling Tale Of Adventure.

Prisons Are Fascinating Places, Especially When The Inmates Are Educated White-collar Types.

Prisons Are Hate Factories, Pastor, And Society Wants More And More Of Them.

I'm Not In Favor Of The Death Penalty. But I'm In Favor Of Locking These People Away In Maximum Security Units Where They Can Never Get Out. They Can Never Escape. They Can Never Be Paroled. Lock The Bad Ones Away. But You Gotta Rethink Everybody Else.

It's Amazing How Lies Grow. You Start With A Small One That Seems Easy To Cover, Then You Get Boxed In And Tell Another One. Then Another. People Believe You At First, Then They Act Upon Your Lies, And You Catch Yourself Wishing You'd Simply Told The Truth.

There Is No Devious And Dangerous Life. I've Lived A Charmed Life, Especially In The Last Thirty Years Since I've Started Publishing. I've Won The Lottery. And I Keep Winning It Every Year And I Am So Fortunate To Do Something I Thoroughly Enjoy And Still Enjoy After A Bunch Of Books.

I Always Try To Tell A Good Story, One With A Compelling Plot That Will Keep The Pages Turning. That Is My First And Primary Goal. Sometimes I Can Tackle An Issue-homelessness, Tobacco Litigation, Insurance Fraud, The Death Penalty-and Wrap A Good Story Around It.

I Was On The Verge Of Tears, So I Turned And Ran Past The Trailer And Along The Field Road Until I Was Safely Out Of Their Sight. Then I Ducked Into The Cotton And Waited For Friendly Voices. I Sat On The Hot Ground, Surrounded By Stalks Four Feet Tall, And I Cried, Something I Really Hated To Do.

Nobody Wants To Read About The Honest Lawyer Down The Street Who Does Real Estate Loans And Wills. If You Want To Sell Books, You Have To Write About The Interesting Lawyers - The Guys Who Steal All The Money And Take Off. That's The Fun Stuff.

And That's The Mission Of The Innocence Project In New York, Is To Exonerate People Who Have Been Wrongfully Convicted, And Also Work From A Policy Angle With Congress And State Legislatures To Prevent Future Wrongful Convictions.

I Stopped Reading William Faulkner Because It's Hard Work. I Want To Read A Good Writer, But I Also Want To Read Something Where The Pages Are Going To Move Along. That's What I Want. It Doesn't Have To Be A Thriller Or A Mystery. Just Something Where I Get Caught Up In The Story.

The Coffee Arrives, And We Backslide Into What Lawyers Do Best---talking About Other Lawyers.

Talking About Others

I Guess Under The Right Circumstances, A Man Will Do Just About Anything.

Death Row Is A Nightmare To Serial Killers And Ax Murderers. For An Innocent Man, It's A Life Of Mental Torture That The Human Spirit Is Not Equipped To Survive.

And They Drank Heavily, Partied With Great Enthusiasm, And Relished The Drug Culture; They Moved In And Out And Slept Around, And This Was Okay Because They Defined Their Own Morality. They Were Fighting For The Mexicans And The Redwoods, Dammit! They Had To Be Good People!

I Looked At Her And Tried To Speak, But All I Could Think About Was How Shocked She'd Be If I Said What I Was Thinking.

If You're Gonna Be Stupid You Gotta Be Tough.

Stephen King Reached Out To Me Twenty-five Years Ago And Taught Me Some Valuable Lessons. In Return, I've Tried To Be Generous With My Time Over The Years With Young Writers. I've Given Them My Email And Said If You Need Someone To Talk To, I've Been Through It.

The First Thing My Family Did When We Moved Was Join The Local Church. The Second Was To Go To The Library And Get Library Cards.

When You Work At Street Level You Never Know Who's Going To Walk Through Your Door.

The Two Mistakes That Come To Mind Are People Who Introduce A Flood Of Characters In The First Few Pages. Where The Reader Has To Stop And Get Out A Flow Chart And Has To Figure Out Who Is Who. And You Just Can't Do That - Introduce The First Four Generations Of A Character's Family In The First Chapter. You Can Introduce Four Or Five Characters At The Most In The First Chapter. Another Mistake Is To Use Big Words That Are Not Normally Used In Conversation To Try To Impress Folks With Your Vocabulary.

Once Again, I Was Reminded That Tally Was The Prettiest Girl I'd Ever Met, And When She Smiled At Me My Mind Went Blank. Once You've Seen A Pretty Girl Naked, You Feel A Certain Attachment To Her.

I Was A Lawyer For 10 Years - A Short Time, But It Molded Me Into Who I Am.

I Don't Usually Eat Breakfast. I Prefer To Be Asleep During The Hours That It Is Served.

I Don't Even Know What A Serious Literary Critic Is.

In One Long Glorious Acknowledgment Of Failure, He Laid Himself Bare Before God.

There Are Few Things In Life Worse Than A Long-winded Lawyer.

Ricky Had Taught Me A Few Cuss Words. I Usually Practiced Them In The Woods By The River, Then Prayed For Forgiveness As Soon As I Was Done.

Because I Was Single, There Was A Chance I Was A Homosexual. Because I Went To Syracuse, Wherever That Was, Then I Was Probably A Communist. Or Worse, A Liberal. Because I Was From Memphis, I Was A Subversive Intent On Embarrassing Ford County.

So Many Book Sections In Newspapers And Magazines Used To Be Lively And Vibrant Places. Now They Are Gone. You Just Don't See Many Reviews Anymore. I Can't Control That, So I Don't Worry About It. I Just Try To Do What I Do And Write Books That People Find Every Entertaining. I Don't Worry About The Critics.

Please Give Me Fifty More Years Of Work And Fun, Then An Instant Death When I'm Sleeping.

I Am Currently Reading, "the Broker" By John Grisham. It Is Alittle Slow To Start So I Will Have To Let You Know If It Gets Better

After I'd Been A Lawyer For About Five Or Six Years, I Started Playing Around With Fiction.

I Seriously Doubt I Would Ever Have Written The First Story Had I Not Been A Lawyer. I Never Dreamed Of Being A Writer. I Wrote Only After Witnessing A Trial.

How Could Homosexuals Possibly Srew Up The Sanctity Of Marriage Any Worse Than Heterosexuals?

Sanctity Of Marriage

I Earned My First Steady Paycheck Watering Rose Bushes At A Nursery For A Dollar An Hour.

I Can't Change Overnight Into A Serious Literary Author. You Can't Compare Apples To Oranges. William Faulkner Was A Great Literary Genius. I Am Not.

Some People Have More Guts Than Brains.

She Was Pondering The Option Of Law School, The Great American Baby-sitter For Directionless Postgrads.

I've Written 17 Novels, And I've Found Out That Fiction Can't Keep Up With Real Life.

One Thing You Really Have To Watch As A Writer Is Getting On A Soapbox Or Pulpit About Anything. You Don't Want To Alienate Readers.

I Was A Lawyer For 10 Years - A Short Time, But It Molded Me Into Who I Am. My Clients Were Little People Fighting Big Corporations, So It Was A Natural Thing To Not Only Represent The Little Guy But Also To Pull For Him - It's The American Way.

Very Few Writers Understand The Complex History And Maddening Social Order Of The Mississippi Delta. For Steve Yarbrough, Though, It's Home Turf. He Is Wickedly Observant, Funny, Cynical, Evocative, And He Possesses A Gift That Cannot Be Taught: He Can Tell A Story.

Mississippi Delta

I Don't Start A Novel Until I Have Lived With The Story For Awhile To The Point Of Actually Writing An Outline And After A Number Of Books I've Learned That The More Time I Spend On The Outline The Easier The Book Is To Write. And If I Cheat On The Outline I Get In Trouble With The Book.

There Are Few Writers Who, If They Publish Anything, I Am Going To Buy It: Ian Mcewan, Scott Turow, Pat Conroy - He Was A Buddy Of Mine And I Always Read His Stuff. Also: Harlan Coben, Elmore Leonard, John Le Carre, But He's Pushing Ninety.

I Didn't Dare Think Of The Future; The Past Was Still Happening.

You Need Some Coffee, Don't You?" "yes, I've Only Had A Gallon.

Ten Years From Now I Plan To Be Sitting Here, Looking Out Over My Land. I Hope I'll Be Writing Books, But If Not, I'll Be On My Pond Fishing With My Kids. I Feel Like The Luckiest Guy I Know.

You Live Your Life Today, Not Tommorow, And Certainly Not Yesterday.

Poverty Is A Great Equalizer

I Did Get Tired Of Hearing That Criticism Years Ago. That Is Not A Compliment. Being Labeled A "beach Read" Is A Put-down. So, I Did Deliberately Set Out To Write A Book, Camino Island, That Would Be Very Entertaining And Compulsively Readable And We Published It On June 6 In Time For Summer Vacation, Hoping That People Would Buy It And Take It To The Beach.

My Mum Was Never Too Keen On Tv, So We Kids All Went To The Library And Got Books Out. Right From The Start, I Loved The Works Of Mark Twain. Every Time I Read About Tom Sawyer, I'd Go Out And Do Something Low-level Naughty, Just Like Him.

My Decision To Become A Lawyer Was Irrevocably Sealed When I Realized My Father Hated The Legal Profession.

In My Case, Once You Sell A Lot Of Books And You Are Labeled A Bestselling Author, The Serious Critics Are Never Gonna Say Anything Nice About You.

I Was A Lawyer For 10 Years, And Several Of My Clients Had The Misfortune, Through No Fault Of My Own, Of Going To Prison. I Visited Them Occasionally.

My Name Became A Brand And I'd Love To Say It Was The Plan From The Start. But The Only Plan Was To Keep Writing Books. And I've Stuck To That Ever Since.

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